Mr Eazi, Guiltybeatz, Sherrie Silver campaign for greater investment in youth and rural development

Afrobeat musician Mr Eazi, and MTV Award-winning choreographer, Sherrie Silver are adding some youthful dynamics to the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) ongoing in Accra till September 6.

Mr Eazi joined Silver, a youth advocate for the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), for the AGRF Youth Town Hall on 3 September, with the aim of capturing the attention of African leaders on how young people can end global hunger.

According to IFAD’s recently released 2019 Rural Development Report, “Creating Opportunities for Rural Youth”, nearly 1 billion of the world’s 1.2 billion youth live in developing countries, about half of them in rural areas where they are most often poor, lack economic opportunities and face constraints to access land, services, technology and training. Adding to the challenge, in Africa it is estimated that 10-12 million young people enter the job market every year. And in rural areas, agriculture is still the biggest source of livelihoods.

On September 2, IFAD organized a field trip with Mr Eazi, Sherrie Silver, Guilty Beatz and Incredible Zigi, to Ada for them to experience how young farmers and entrepreneurs within community, have benefited from the Rural Enterprise Program, which is funded by IFAD and other agencies.

Mr Eazi and Sherrie Silver are participating in AGRF as part of an IFAD youth-focused campaign called Our Future is Here that includes a TikTok “dance challenge” calling on people around the world to “make their moves matter” by recording a 15-second dance video to the song “Freedom.”

The song was specially created by Mr Eazi and aims to positively depict agriculture and attract young people to farming, has also been used to create a campaign video featuring rural youth in an IFAD-supported project in Cameroon dancing with Silver to her choreography.